BEIJING: Authorities said the death toll from Typhoon Lekima in China has climbs to 32 with another 16 people missing.

 Around 5 million people in Zhejiang province have been affected, with over 1 million evacuated to safe places, according to officials.

Lekima made landfall in the early hours of Saturday in Wenling, between Taiwan and China’s financial capital Shanghai, packing strong winds and heavy rain.

Most of the deaths were in the city of Wenzhou where torrential downpours caused a landslide, media reports said.

The landslide occurred after a barrier lake – or natural dam – formed, pooling water from the heavy rains before collapsing.

Emergency crews scrambled to save stranded motorists from floods and searched for survivors in the rubble of damaged buildings.

(Agencies)